Captured on 9 May 1941 in the North Atlantic east of Cape Farewell, Greenland, after being badly damaged by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Bulldog, HMS Broadway and the British corvette HMS Aubretia. The boat was allowed to sink the day after to preserve the secret of her capture (see below). 15 dead and 32 survivors.

Attacks on this boat and other events

General notes on this boat

"The Secret Capture"

U-110 was captured by the Royal Navy on May 9 1941. This was perhaps the most important capture of the entire war and was so secret that even the crew of U-110 did not know of it! U-110, under the command of Kptlt. Fritz Julius Lemp, had been attacking a convoy in the Atlantic south of Iceland together with U-201 (Oblt. Adalbert Schnee), when Lemp left his periscope up too long (probably to confirm a kill: he sank two ships totalling 7500 GRT that day) and the escort corvette HMS Aubretia sighted it and rushed to the scene and began depth charging.

U-110 survived the first attacks, but then
HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway joined the hunt. U-110 was forced to surface, and HMS Bulldog immediately set course to ram (its commander realised it might be possible to capture U-110, and veered aside at the last moment) which caused Lemp to order "Abandon Ship". Lemp assumed the boat would be sunk, and its confidential material would go down with it. When he was in the water he realised the boat was not sinking, and attempted to swim back to prevent capture. That was the last seen of him. Members of U-110s crew later claimed he was shot in the water by the British boarding party, but that was never confirmed.

The boarding party commanded by Lt David Balme made several journeys between U-110 and HMS Bulldog to collect whatever they could get their hands on inside the boat. This proved to be very fruitful, as U-110 was abandoned in a hurry, and being a Type IXB U-boat, did not sink as rapidly as a Type VIIC would have. It is almost certain that many U-boats were sunk as a result of the material found inside U-110, including an Enigma machine with rotors set and current code books.

The day after the capture, the British Admiralty realised the importance of this, and that if the Germans knew the boat had been captured, they would assume the worst and change their codes and cipher system. The boat was accordingly ordered to be scuttled while being towed to Britain, the surviving crew were taken straight to Iceland to be interned, and everyone involved in the capture sworn to secrecy. 15 of U-110's crew died in the action and 32 were interned.

This event was the subject of a British parliamentary motion in 1999 condemning the portrayal of the capture of U-110 and subsequent breaking of German codes as an American success in the film U-571.

23 Mar 1941. On attempting to fire on a freighter with the deck gun the water-tight plug was not removed from the barrel. The subsequent explosion caused damage severe enough to force a return to port.

There was another U-110 in World War OneThat boat was launched from its shipyard on 28 Jul 1917 and commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 25 Sep 1917. The Naval war in WWI was brought to an end with the Armistice signed on 11 Nov, 1918. Read about SM U 110 during WWI.